Board Weighs Hs Options

HAMPTON — Debate over how and when to fix the city's high schools shows a new proposal could have a long way to go.

Bethel High School is packed to the gills. Students at Kecoughtan and Phoebus high schools see cockroaches skitter across floors. Hampton High is almost 50 years old and is in bad shape.

"Every year, there's something new wrong," said Jacob Berg, a senior at Hampton High who works as a city youth planner.

The problems are no secret. When public discussion turns to conditions inside Hampton's schools -- and it often does -- teachers, parents and students tell the same stories. They talk about potholes, leaks and cockroaches -- lots of cockroaches.

In a city that hasn't built a new school in 28 years, few residents dispute the need for renovation and rebuilding. Officials in the school system and City Hall face a formidable challenge in deciding which priorities come first when almost everyone is waiting for something.

The Schools Investment Panel, a group of residents and city and school officials, released recommendations last month for $284.5 million in construction and upgrades over 10 years. The proposal recommends building five schools and refurbishing seven.

It's up to the School Board to flesh out many of the details. At a meeting this week, members discussed the proposals as a group for the first time and quickly agreed on some suggestions. But their debate over high schools -- when to renovate old buildings versus when to build a new one -- reveals how complex the discussion can become.

The investment panel's final report emphasizes a "fix what you have" theory that calls for renovating first in most cases. The plan proposes doubling the general maintenance budget to $29.5 million over five years to pay for roof repairs, new air-conditioning systems and other upkeep in all buildings.

This week, School Board members Phyllis Henry and the Rev. Anderson Clary supported a general emphasis on renovation.

"If we've got a lot of broken schools ... we've got to fix them," Clary said in a work session. "Before we build anything new, we need to at least bring up to standard the schools we already have."

Notes from School Investment Panel meetings indicate that Hampton High School, erected in 1958, needs to be rebuilt, but the group eventually recommended only that one current high school in the city receive a major overhaul.

Overcrowding, one of the biggest problems at Bethel and Kecoughtan, probably won't disappear until the city builds a new high school. They're the two smallest high schools in the city but have the largest number of students -- 2,052 at Bethel and 1,896 at Kecoughtan last year.

Phoebus High School, by contrast, claims the largest building and the smallest population, but it houses a number of special-education classes and programs that require more space.

The panel recommended building a fifth high school, but not until sometime around 2014.

That concerns School Board member Fred Brewer, who said they're essentially talking about a new high school for kids who may not be born yet. In the meantime, thousands more students will continue attending overpacked schools, he said.

"It's something that's been out there for a long time and has been a concern for a lot of people," said Brewer, who has three children at Bethel.

Brewer said he doesn't want to take away from renovations but hopes the board can move up the timeline for a fifth high school, which the panel suggested building on a city-owned plot at the eastern tip of Hampton Roads Center Parkway.

Hampton's school enrollment has declined slightly over the past decade, and the city expects it will drop a bit more by 2007. After some discussion, the panel concluded that a fifth high school would reduce class sizes, protect special programs and get rid of some portable classrooms, said Mary Bunting, assistant city manager and a panel member.

Bunting said the drop in school population should even out and that the city's ongoing redevelopment projects could boost enrollment again.

Many Hampton students said they care most about seeing small and immediate repairs that will make their school lives a bit more pleasant.

Rachel Booth, a senior at Kecoughtan High School, said she was happy to see that maintenance crews had installed new lighting indoors and filled a "pool-sized pothole" in the parking lot. She's waiting for them to do something about the cockroaches.

"They're on the floors and they're on the walls," Booth said. "It's quite gross."

As the city's senior youth planner, Berg helped poll students on what they wanted out of school improvement. Overwhelmingly, they said basic renovations were most important because they seemed most equitable.

"You can spend your money to build a new school," Berg said, "but only a certain percentage of students will go there." *